MAKURDI — In a shocking exposure of executive overreach and political vendetta, the former Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Hyacinth Dajoh, has revealed that Governor Hyacinth Alia orchestrated his forced resignation because he flatly refused to support a bizarre plot to relocate the revered Tor Tiv palace from its ancestral home in Gboko to the Governor’s personal hometown.
Dajoh, who was democratically elected to lead the state legislature on June 5, 2023, representing the Gboko West constituency, fell out of favor with the executive after standing firmly against what he characterized as a direct assault on the cultural heritage of the Tiv nation.
Sacrificing Legislative Independence for Personal Ambition
The explosive revelation underscores the severe assault on the independence of the legislature under the Alia administration. According to insiders, the Governor’s office deployed intense political pressure, financial intimidation, and administrative leverage to destabilize the House leadership after Dajoh made it clear that the state assembly would not be used as a rubber stamp for culturally disruptive executive whims.
Political analysts have swiftly condemned the Governor’s actions, noting that forcing out a sitting head of a separate arm of government over a personal, parochial agenda violates the fundamental principles of the separation of powers. Rather than focusing on Benue’s pressing developmental and security crises, the administration is accused of wasting vital political capital on unnecessary ego clashes and territorial dominance.
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| BENUE STATE EXECUTIVE-LEGISLATIVE CRISIS |
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| AREA OF IMPACT | NATURE OF EXECUTIVE INTERFERENCE |
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| Legislative Autonomy | Speaker forced out for exercising |
| | independent legislative dissent. |
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| Cultural Heritage | Attempt to uproot the historic |
| | traditional seat of the Tor Tiv. |
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| State Stability | Heightened political tension and |
| | internal polarization in Makurdi. |
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An Assault on Tiv Traditional Institutions
The plot to relocate the palace of the Tor Tiv from Gboko—the historical, spiritual, and administrative capital of the Tiv people—has sent shockwaves through the state’s traditional institutions. By attempting to move the ancient seat of power to his own hometown, Governor Alia is facing severe backlash for treating a highly revered, centuries-old traditional stool as a personal political trophy.
Dajoh’s refusal to legitimize the relocation plan has positioned him as a defender of traditional boundaries, while casting the Governor as an authoritarian figure willing to dismantle sacred cultural structures for personal aggrandizement. Critics point out that uprooting the palace of the Tor Tiv threatens to alienate key stakeholders, inflame regional sentiments, and create deep, irreversible divisions within the Tiv nation.
As the political fallout intensifies in Makurdi, the Alia administration has remained defensive, but the forced ouster of Speaker Dajoh has already left a permanent stain on the government’s democratic credentials, exposing an administration more invested in absolute control than collaborative governance.
